Rodney L Benjamin OAM
Mercantile Rowing Club (VIC)
Rod Benjamin took up his rowing at Scotch College (Vic) where he raced in the two seat of their 1947 first eight. He then went on to be an active member of Mercantile Rowing Club for a couple of seasons in the late 1940s. Of other interest was his importance in the insurance broking business Edward Lumley & Sons. This firm employed a highly regarded Captain Jeff Wylie in the early 1960s and Jeff would no doubt have received encouragement from Rod Benjamin. Sadly Jeff died whilst Captain. Edward Lumley & Sons donated the Jeff Wylie Memorial Trophy to the club.
Back to Rod's life and his rowing career was overshadowed by his writing and his work which were both highly regarded.
The following obituary appeared in The Age on Wednesday 11th July 2012 and was written his son Ric.
Business and Community Leader, Historian
2-2-1930- 5-6-2012
Rod Benjamin, a business and community leader, sportsman and writer with a passion for the arts, has died of heart failure at Epworth Hospital. He was 82.
As a writer of history, Rod contributed three books of particular significance: Paths to Professionalism: A History of Insurance Broking in Australia
(1988); A Serious Influx of Jews: A History of Jewish Welfare in Victoria (1998); and his most celebrated work, The Forgotten Zionist, a biography of his fatherin-law, Sioma Jacobi, who was the most senior figure in the Revisionist Zionist movement in the 1930s after Jabotinsky. The book was published just before Rod's death.
Born in Malvern, the youngest of three children of Oswald and Marjorie, he was also the youngest grandson of Sir Benjamin Benjamin, the first Jewish mayor of Melbourne in 1888.
Rod attended Scotch College from 1936 to '47, and was a prefect in his final year. He was also the sports editor of the school magazine, producer of the school play, rowed in first VIII crew, and matriculated with first class honours in economics - third overall in Victoria.
Also at school he established bonds of friendship that would last his lifetime, first with Irving Saulwick and Colin Bennett, and then, from the age of 13, with Carmel Jacobi, whom he married in 1951. These enduring friendships, however, were in tragic contrast to events in 1944 when first his father, aged 60, and then mother, aged 42, died.
Having finished school Rod had wanted to go to university to study economics but was advised by his guardian not to go to study, but rather start a career. Disappointed, he started work at Edward Lumley & Sons, where his father had been managing director. Starting as an office boy, Rod soon rose through the ranks, starting with an executive training program in London (1953-54). He was appointed manager of the company's Ballarat branch in 1955, director of Lumley Victoria in 1960, managing director in 1975, and then chairman of Lumley's Australia.
Requiring open heart surgery in 1979 and then again in 1981, Rod was unable to resume fulltime work and retired from Lumley in December 1981.
By late 1982, he began his own general insurance consultancy practice. His clients included the Municipal Association of Victoria, state government of Victoria, WorkCover, Victorian Port Authority, State Electricity Commission of Victoria, the Medical Defence Association of Victoria, and Coopers & Lybrand. He was also called as an insurance expert witness in all levels of Victorian and New South Wales courts, and the Federal Court. In 1983, he was called to the High Court in London during the Ash Wednesday bushfire case against the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.
Rod was also a director and CEO of the Professional Indemnity Insurance Company Australia, which was the insurance company of the Medical Defence Association of Victoria, from 1991 to 2003.
Along the way his family life blossomed, with the arrival of four children, Philip (1954), Suzanne (1956), Paul (1959) and Ric (1962).
Meanwhile, there were the other notable aspects of Rod's life - sport, community and the writing of history. His sporting activities after leaving school included involvement at the Mercantile Rowing Club, where he was a member of Maiden VIII crew (Victorian Champions, 1948), and third in the Jollyboat Australian championship (1966). He represented Australia in the Jollyboat world championship Montreal in 1967.
Rod's community service had two phases, with five different groups. In the 1960s, he began an almost 20-year commitment to the Australian Jewish Welfare Society (board of Victoria, 1967-99; president, 1982-85; and federal president, 1983-85). During this time he was instrumental in negotiating the migration of Jews from the former Soviet Union with the federal government. At this time, he was also president of the Friends of the Hebrew University, and worked on the board ofRoyal Southern Memorial Hospital, as treasurer 1969-77, and president 1978-82.
The new century provided a new focus for his community work when he became involved in the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, on the council and as treasurer between 1999 and 2008; as a volunteer community visitor for the Office of the Public Advocate (2003-08); and then with the University of the Third Age, Hawthorn, as president from 2008 to last year.
Besides his roles at Lumley, Rod also held senior positions with professional associations: president of the Insurance Institute ofVictoria (1973); inaugural chairman of the Victorian advisory board, Insurance Council of Australia (1975); and chairman Victorian Workers' Compensation Insurers Advisory Committee and Rating Committee (1977-1981).
In recognition of his deep engagement across these areas, he was made an honorary life member of the Insurance Institute of Victoria (1975), of the Australian Insurance Institute (1978) and of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society (2000).
But it was the start of Rod's tertiary education as a mature age student that opened up the creative outlet of the writing of history that he would enjoy the rest of his life. He graduated as both BA and MA with honours and in 1993 was awarded a PhD in economic history.
In addition to the three books he authored, Rod also co-edited or contributed to The Australian Insurance Industry- 160 Years On (1992), A Few From Afar, Jewish Lives in Tasmania from 1804 (2003), The Internationalisation Strategies of Small-Country Firms, and The Australian Experience of Globalisation (2007).
Other passions completed the canvas of Rod's life: he sang in choirs, dabbled in sculpture and always made time for his love of chamber music, good food and wine, gardening, the company of his dogs and the arm-wrestle of ideas.
In 1999, he was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the Jewish community and the insurance industry.
Rod is survived by his wife of 61 years, Carmel, his children Philip, Suzanne, Paul and Ric, and grandchildren Joel, Ramy, Talia, Jake, Ella, Joshua and Amy.
Extracted by Andrew Guerin
January 2025